The Only One For Me
by Kaizoku no Kazoku
Summary: Zoro is an asexual betta merman who falls in love with the human Luffy. Will Luffy, who's not only asexual himself, but aromantic as well, return his affections? Non-sexual LuZo
1. Chapter 1

**Hi,**

 **I haven't posted here for a while. There have been a lot of things going on, but I haven't stopped writing.**

 **A few years ago, I, and another author, started a fic about Zoro as a merboy (of about 9 years old). Besides kind of losing touch with the author, I also kind of lost interest in the fic. Then not too long ago, I decided to start this one. I hope I'm writing it ok, and that everyone who reads it enjoys it. Please leave a review if you like it.**

 **Thank you**

* * *

"Isn't there _any_ woman you're interested in? Like a mermaid or fishgirl?"

Zoro pondered the question for several long minutes. Ever since he'd been a betta merchild, born to a fishman father and a mermaid mother, he'd never really been interested in girls. When he was younger, he'd had mer and fishgirls as friends, rather than as romantic interests. As he grew older, Sanji, his fishman friend, had developed an almost perverted interest in the female sex, particularly human females. Because of this, he'd had many narrow escapes at the hands of humans. Sanji just really liked the female sex, regardless of species.

He, on the other hand, had no such interest.

After another minute, he answered a simple, "No."

"Well... are you interested in guys then?" Sanji asked, giving his best friend Zoro an odd look.

"If you mean sexually, I'm not interested in anyone actually. Girl, guy, or otherwise."

Sanji belted out a hearty laugh. "You just turned 21, and you're still not interested in anyone, Marimo? You're really weird!"

"No weirder than a pervert who chases after girls at every given opportunity." Zoro said, folding his arms and flicking his deep orchid colored tail with the large, billowing fins. "You don't even care what species they are."

"Hey! Chasing after girls is normal for a healthy 21 year old fishman! But you're no different now than you were when we were kids."

Zoro's good eye narrowed. "I am! I'm just not a pervert like you."

"You're right. You're not perverted. You've just got some kind of some kind of weird sexuality no one's ever even heard about," Sanji retorted in a way that made it sound as if Zoro had some kind of odd disease.

"Okay, you know what? I don't have to stay here and listen to this." Zoro began to swim away, but Sanji caught his arm.

"Wait! Okay, I'm sorry," Sanji apologized, albeit a bit halfheartedly.

Zoro tried to yank out of Sanji's grip. "I don't care! Let me go!"

"Can I at least buy you a drink?" Sanji asked. He really hadn't meant to upset his friend. "Let bygones be bygones?"

Zoro thought for a moment, then he sighed. "Okay, but two bottles?"

"Two bottles then."

* * *

Zoro could really hold his liquor. The drinks he'd ordered had had a lot of proof in them. Had it been Sanji, he'd be plastered and under the table by now. As it was, Zoro was only slightly beyond buzzed.

"So, you forgive me?" Sanji asked as he sipped on his second mug of lager.

"Well, shit." Zoro sighed. "Yeah. I guess I can forgive you. _This_ time. I may not know what my sexuality is, but it's not weird, and you have no right to make fun."

"Okay. Your sexuality isn't weird then." Sanji still thought his friend was weird, but said nothing. After a moment, he asked, "Wanna come girl watching with me?"

Zoro really didn't want to go, but didn't want to get called weird again either. He sighed again. It seemed he did that a lot when he was around Sanji. "Alright."

"Let's watch the human girls above the surface," Sanji suggested.

Zoro slammed his web-fingered hands on the table. "No way! You know I was nearly caught by humans not that long ago! You see what they did to me!" Zoro pointed at his left eye which was scarred; the eyelids permanently closed. He'd lost that eye in the escape from the humans. He was happy that that was the only thing he'd lost, besides his trust in most humans.

"Don't worry! If the humans take too much of an interest in you, I'll be there to help you!"

"In a human's eyes, merpeople are more valueable than fishpeople. I look like a fishman from the waist up, but I'm a merman from the waist down. If they see that, they're gonna try to capture me again!"

"Well, we don't have to leave the water, just poke our heads above the surface. If they see us, they'll think we're just two fishmen paying them a visit. They don't even have to see your tail. C'mon!" Sanji prodded.

"No."

* * *

How he always managed to get roped into doing whatever Sanji wanted, Zoro had no idea.

"So b-beautiful!" Sanji whispered as he and Zoro watched the ladies frolic on the beach, playing volleyball and frisbee. Still others were sunbathing. A trickle of blood ran from his nose as his face took on a lecherous appearance.

Zoro sighed. "Beautiful, yeah. I know." Glancing at Sanji's face, he said, "That's really gross, you know."

Sanji sighed in his lovesick way. "I wanna go talk to them..."

Zoro rolled his eyes. "And chase them around. I get it. Listen. I'm going back down. You do what you want. And wash the blood from your fa-" He was interrupted by Sanji grabbing his arm.

"Come with me Zoro!"

"You forget I don't have legs like you. I can't walk around on land," Zoro told him. "Let go!" Zoro snatched back his arm.

"Oh yeah, I guess that's a bit of a problem, isn't it?" Sanji pondered for a second, looking down into the water at Zoro's swishing tail. "Oh well, I'll go myself, and you can watch my back. See ya!"

Zoro watched his friend leave, noting that Sanji hadn't even washed the blood from his face like he'd told him to. Oh well, if that pervert got himself in trouble again, and he most likely would, it was no skin off his back.

Then again, no matter what, Sanji was his friend. He couldn't just leave him like that. Humans were mostly untrustworthy. Even Sanji knew this. As much as he didn't really want to, he'd look out for his perverted friend and help him if he needed it.

His eyes scanned the beach. It was very warm for this time of year, and there was a mix of men and women, having a great time playing or relaxing. He watched the women for a moment, and try as he might, he couldn't understand what it was about them that made Sanji stay sexually charged all the time. Zoro himself was content to stay a virgin for the rest of his life. He didn't understand people like Sanji who seemed to live on sex and being around girls.

He began to wonder if Sanji was right, and he _was_ weird. After all, even people who weren't as sexually charged as Sanji, still enjoyed sex. Zoro on the other hand, found the whole sex thing... kind of gross.

He shook his head. No. He wasn't weird. He was just... different. Sighing, he scanned the beach, seeing Sanji chasing several human women; his perverted hands clutching air as he ran, as if he'd like to squeeze whatever part of them he could grab. This was one of the few times Zoro wished he had legs, so that he could stop Sanji's perverted pursuits. Embarrassed by his friend, he sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, closing his eyes. Opening them again, he turned his head, spotting a fishing peer a little ways away with two young human men sitting with fishing poles; their legs dangling in the water.

From the looks of them, they were having a friendly chat as they fished. The one furthest from him wore yellow swim trunks, and a large, curly, black puff of hair was tied in the back of his head. The other young man wore red swim trunks. His hair was shorter, straighter, and blew in the gentle breeze. Sporting a straw hat with a red band that hung on a string around his neck, the young man laughed at something his friend said.

Zoro noticed the large eyes that looked like they craved adventure, the bright smile that turned into a big grin at the first opportunity, and his sunny personality. Unbeknownst to Zoro, a shy smile formed on his face as he watched the man in the red trunks go about what he was doing, completely oblivious to him.

Zoro sighed, but this time, in a happy way. This human looked innocous enough. He really wanted to talk to him. Zoro didn't dare swim closer though. He'd encountered "innocous" humans before. For now, he'd just be content to gaze from afar.

* * *

"Sure is warm out here," Usopp said as he put down his fishing pole in a spot where it wouldn't get dragged out into the ocean by a wayward fish. "I'm gonna get something to drink. Want anything Luffy?"

"Yeah. I'll take a cherry soda," Luffy said without turning around.

Usopp was genuinely puzzled. "No meat soda?"

"Well..." Luffy pondered for a moment. He turned to grin up at his friend. "You can bring me a meat soda too."

"Okay, if that's what you really want." Usopp shrugged, turning and jogging toward the drink stands.

Luffy turned back, resuming his fishing. After a long moment, his senses told him he was being watched. He glanced out in the sea to his left, spotting several yards away, what looked like a fishman floating there watching him as he fished. Luffy wondered how long he had been there. The fins on his head and ears screamed fishman, but he had an almost human skintone. He'd heard that fishpeople and merfolk often interbred, creating an endless variety among the people. Was this actually a fishman, or did he have merfolk qualities as well?

Normally, whenever Luffy met a potential new friend, he'd shout in happiness, loudly urging them to become his friend. This time though, he didn't want to draw attention to himself, nor to the fishman in the water, so he quietly beckoned his new friend over.

* * *

At first, Zoro stayed where he was, too apprehensive to actually approach. But then, this was only one human, and he was a lot stronger than one human. Diving into the water, he swam toward the fishing peer.

Surprise registered on Luffy's face as the fishman suddenly popped his head above water near the end of the pier where he was sitting. He hadn't really expected him to come over. He grinned down to his new friend. "Hi, fishman! My name is Monkey D. Luffy! What's your name?"

Zoro couldn't believe the human was being so friendly with him. He paused a second from gazing into the eyes of the human, before blurting out, "Zoronoa Roro! I-I mean, Roronoa Zoro! B-But you can just call me Zoro!" He hated to stammer, but he felt a lot like a giddy schoolgirl meeting her favourite member of her favourite band for the first time. His heart sped up, his breathing quickened, and he swallowed hard.

Luffy let out a playful laugh. "Hey, Zoro, when my friend Usopp gets back, wanna join us in a game of volleyball? You can be on my team!"

"I... can't..." Zoro said; face turning pink.

Luffy was puzzled. "Huh? Why not?"

Zoro quickly dove underwater; his tail flipping upward out of the water as he did so. As his head broke the surface again, he could hear an awed gasp from Luffy.

"You're not a fishman at all! You're a merman!" Luffy exclaimed happily.

"Well, my Dad is a fishman, but my Mom is a mermaid." Zoro explained calmly. "Weirdly enough, my sister got fishfolk legs, but I got a tail. Weird huh?"

"That's not weird, actually." After a moment, Luffy said, "And your tail is really beautiful!"

Zoro flushed deeper this time. "Thank you... Though sometimes, I wish I had legs so I could stop him..." He jerked a thumb in Sanji's direction. "...when he gets too wild."

Luffy gazed over to where the fishman in question was busy chasing human girls all over the beach. "That your friend? What's he doing anyway?"

"Chasing girls. _Human_ girls." Zoro sighed. "It's like he can't live without..." He made a face. "...sex... or something... I just don't get that."

"I don't get those kindsa people either. That's something I can frankly live without, but whatever floats his boat I guess."

Zoro turned back to Luffy, surprised. "Really? Same here! I'm not sexually attracted to others, and the idea of sex doesn't appeal to me at all. Actually... It's kind of revolting..." His brow furrowed as he gazed into the water. "But Sanji's always making fun of me and calling me weird for that. Just 'cause I'm not like him, doesn't make me weird!"

Luffy seemed to sense some of Zoro's frustration. "You sound like you're asexual. It's not weird to be asexual, just different, that's all! I-"

At the unfamiliar word, Zoro's ears and head perked up. "What did you just say it was called again?"

"What? Asexual? Yeah! It basically means people who don't experience sexual attraction. Some of us are even sex repulsed. Actually, that sounds like you!"

Zoro smiled a small, embarrassed smile. "Yeah, I guess it does..."

Luffy grinned at the merman. "Hey, wanna be friends?"

Just then, Usopp showed up with drinks in hand. "Who're you talking to, Luffy?"

Luffy pointed down in the water to Zoro. "Him! His name is Zoro! He's my new friend!"

Usopp put down the drinks, sitting down on the pier again, crossing his legs. "Whoa, I've never seen a fishman up close before!" He said peering down into the water at Zoro.

Before Zoro could say anything, Luffy told Usopp, "He's not a fishman, he's a merman with a cool tail!"

Now that Luffy had mentioned it, Usopp could see Zoro's lazily swaying tail beneath the surface of the mostly clear waters. "Your tail _is_ cool, but what's it look like in the sunlight?"

Zoro once again did his flipping maneuver, to which an awed Usopp said, "Look at that _color_! And it shimmers in the sunlight too! Beautiful..."

"Thanks... I can't tell you how many humans have tried to capture me for my tail," Zoro told them, shaking the water from his hair. "The last time, I lost my eye in the escape."

"That's horrible!" Usopp exclaimed, then he thought a moment. He then said, "I heard that mermaid tails split when they get older. Won't your tail split too? Then they won't come after you so much."

"And you can walk around on land!" Luffy chimed in.

Zoro explained further. "Only some mertails do that. Mine's not the kind that splits. I don't mind having a tail instead of legs, except for the few times I need to leave the water. Then it gets a little annoying."

Luffy commented, grinning, "I wish I had a cool mertail, then I could swim!"

This surprised Zoro. "You can't swim? I thought all humans could?" He knew that humans were slow and not very graceful in the water, but he still had thought that all humans could, at least to some extent, swim.

"He could swim okay as a kid, but.. I dunno... Something happened as he got older. He can't swim anymore. He goes into water any deeper than to his waist and he could drown." Usopp explained to Zoro.

"Wow... " Zoro breathed in disbelief. "My sister Kuina and I have always been excellent swimmers. But... I guess that's because we're made for it, after all."

Usopp recognized the name Kuina. "Is your sister the fishwoman who owns that dojo over on 4th Street?"

"Yeah," Zoro confirmed. "Though I'm unable to train there. What's the dojo like, anyway? I've never seen it."

"Well, I'm not exactly a swordsman, so I've never been inside," Usopp admitted, finishing his drink and grabbing his fishing pole again. "I hear it's a good one though, and with a wait list, it's hard to get into."

"Wow... Kuina told me it was popular, but that was all she said about it. She doesn't talk much about work." Zoro looked into the water off to his side. "Looks like you're about to get a bite," He told Usopp.

The fish in question, being unafraid of Zoro, swam straight for the bait on Usopp's hook. As it took the bait, Zoro whispered loudly, "Now!"

Usopp pulled on his line; the 14" fish popping out of the water to hang flapping around in the warm air. "Wow! That's a big one! Thanks, Zoro!"

"No problem!" He turned to Luffy. "Next time, I'll snag a fish for you!" He glanced toward the beach just in time to see several human men chasing Sanji with weapons in hand. "Anyway, I need to get going before Sanji gets himself into anymore trouble. See ya round! And thanks Luffy!" He said before diving beneath the surface again, and quickly swimming toward the beach.

"Luffy? Why'd he thank you?" Usopp asked. He turned to Luffy. "And who's Sanji?"

* * *

 **If you liked it, please review. Thank you**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you again for reviewing, SunnyDe! Here's the next chapter!  
**

* * *

"Hold _still_ Sanji!" Zoro said impatiently as he dabbed at a cut on his friend's cheekbone near his eye. He had a nasty bump on the head too. "I _told_ you that you shouldn't go harassing the human women! Humans already think they're better than us. Just leave them alone, or one day you're gonna get seriously hurt."

"But the human girls are so beautiful!" Sanji sighed as he thought of the girls he'd had fun with on the beach. At least until the men began picking up weapons after he'd caught one of the girls and began putting his hands all over her. "And I don't know many fishwomen. 'Cept your sister. She's pretty cute-"

"You stay away from my sister! Or so help me..." Zoro threatened. He took a deep breath to calm himself down, then sideeyed Sanji. "... Lech..."

Sanji grinned. "Aww, come on, Zoro! Don't be like that! I'm just a healthy, young, 21 year old! I need to have... relations, sometime!" He said, using a word different from the "S" word to which Zoro seemed to have such an aversion.

Zoro sighed, as he plunked an ice pack onto the back of Sanji's head. "Yeah, but... why can't you settle down with just _one_ girl? Why do you want every girl you see?"

Sanji hissed in pain as the pack was not-so-gently placed on his head. "So many beautiful girls, and I'm only one fishman. Life's too short to settle down. And with only one girl."

"I just don't get you..."

Sanji's brow furrowed a bit. " _I'm_ the one who doesn't get _you_! You just turned 21 yourself a few days ago, and you still think of sex as some kind of nasty thing. What's _wrong_ with you, anyway?"

Zoro remembered what Luffy had told him. And if what he said was true, he wasn't weird, and he had nothing to be ashamed of. "There's nothing _wrong_ with me! I'm just- I'm just..."

"You're just _what_?" Sanji prodded tauntingly.

"I'm... I'm _asexual_!" Zoro shouted, angry that Sanji couldn't, or wouldn't understand.

Sanji stared blankly at Zoro for a second, before bursting into a fit of laughter so hard he could barely catch his breath. " _Asexual_? Like a plant?"

Zoro's blood began to boil. How _dare_ Sanji make fun of him. _Again_! "NO!"

Sanji was genuinely interested. "Then what do you mean then?"

Zoro explained to him as best he could, trying to calm his anger. "I mean that I'm not sexually attracted to people. Female, male, or otherwise. That's basically the gist of it. Anything to do with sex and sexual relationships is just not my thing."

Sanji cocked his head questioningly. "Can you even fall in love?"

Zoro went on the defense again. "How would you even know if I did? You've never fallen in love before either. Chasing scads of women around isn't being in love."

"True, I guess. But... Well... It's fun and it makes me feel good!"

"Fun for _you_ , but have you ever thought about how it makes _them_ feel?" Zoro asked. "I'm pretty sure it doesn't make them feel good at all."

"Well, yeah... but..."

"Yeah but nothing. You need to stop doing that. There's nothing wrong with liking girls, but treating them as if only their bodies matter to you... That's just reprehensible." Zoro didn't want to lecture Sanji, but he needed to hear this.

Sanji was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right..." He chuckled. "Even though we grew up together, we two couldn't be more different. I can't seem to live without sex, and you couldn't care less about it."

Zoro crossed his arms, turning his head a bit. "Yeah..."

Sanji could see that Zoro was still brewing in frustration. So he said, "Listen. I'll try to control myself a little more-"

"A _lot_ more."

"Okay, a lot more." Sanji could feel himself getting blue balls already. "I'll just... try to control myself, okay?"

Zoro closed his eyes, took a deep breath, letting it out quickly. "Okay."

Sanji sighed, gazing at his right hand. A hand he'd have to utilize a lot more if he was going to cut down on his favorite activity.

* * *

"Hey, Zoro. You look like something's bothering you." Kuina said, coming in after a hard day's work at the dojo.

Zoro was really close to his older sister, and always felt comfortable confiding in her. "Yeah, it's Sanji." He sighed. "He called me weird, just because I'm not as sex crazed as he is. And then, I met a new friend today who told me I was asexual." He smiled shyly. "I now have a name for the way I feel now!" Then he frowned again. "But then Sanji made fun of that too."

Kuina often wondered why Zoro remained friends with Sanji, when all Sanji ever seemed to do was to make her brother unhappy. But, she felt, it wasn't her place to question their friendship. There must have been a reason that Zoro stuck by Sanji, even if Sanji didn't seem a good match for Zoro. "I'm sure, deep down, Sanji is a good guy, but he shouldn't be making you feel bad about yourself all the time. You're not weird for being asexual. In fact, I think it's great that you have a name for the way you feel now. Maybe Sanji's the weird one for being so sex crazed. Has he ever thought about that?"

"I dunno..." He then breathed a sigh of relief. If Kuina didn't think him weird, then maybe he wasn't.

"Anyway, who's your new friend?"

Zoro's face perked up again. "His name is Luffy! And he's a human! He has black hair... ooh, I wish I had black hair... and he wears a straw hat on a string around his neck, and he's so _cute_! And... and... I think I _like_ him! Like, more than friends... Not in a sexual way, but in a way that makes me want to spend more time with him... Something like that. But he can't swim, and I can't move around easily on land. How can we spend more time together if he's a human, and I'm a merman?"

Kuina was ecstatic that her brother had finally found someone he liked, even if that person happened to be a human. "I'm so happy you found someone you like! Even I was worried about that for a while. Hmmm... I'm not sure how you two could spend more time together. Especially if he can't swim. Usually a human's only hinderance is their air-breathing lungs."

"I know! I wish he could breathe underwater like us, 'cause I could teach him to swim." He swished his abundant tail.

"You forget that humans don't have tails, or even web-fingered hands. Even if you could teach him to swim, he still wouldn't be able to swim nearly as well or as fast as you can. Humans were built for land, like we were built for water." Kuina reasoned.

" _I_ was built exclusively for water, you were built for land _and_ water." Zoro corrected, crossing his arms. "Why couldn't I just be a _whole_ fishman?"

Kuina shrugged. "I don't know, Little Brother. It's just something that happens randomly. Anyway, I thought you liked your tail?"

He sighed. "I do, but sometimes I wish I had legs to walk with."

"But Dear Little Brother, Dad wouldn't have let me inherit the dojo if you'd been a whole fishman. It's because his son came out as a merchild that I, his daughter, even got the chance to inherit it at all," she gently teased.

"Hmph," Zoro crossed his arms again. "Thanks to my being a merchild, I've never even _seen_ the dojo. I want to be able to freely walk around, even if it's just for a while. See things that we don't have here on Fishman Island."

"I know... There's this story the humans have about a mermaid who wanted to become human. Only the gods know why, though..." Kuina told him.

An odd look graced Zoro's young face. "Why would she want to be human? They can't even breathe underwater!"

"I know! If I remember correctly, she wanted to exchange her tail for feet," She told him before continuing. "So anyway, she consulted a sea witch to fulfill her wish, but not without consequences. I haven't heard the story in a while, so I don't remember all that happened, but if _you_ ever find a sea witch, don't go asking her about turning you into a whole fishman."

"There're no sea witches! At least none that I know of."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just saying." She hugged her little brother, stroking his dorsal fin. "Anyway though, you're really very beautiful! Why would you want to be a fishman just so you could have a pair of legs?"

It was Zoro's turn to shrug. "Not permanently. Just for a little while. Like a day or two."

"Anyway, about you and this Luffy guy hanging out, I'll think of something, okay?" Kuina told him, pulling away again.

Zoro smiled. "Okay."

Kuina smiled back. "Okay then. Feel better?"

Zoro nodded. "Yeah."

* * *

Zoro lay on his belly, head on his hands, basking in the moonlight. He lay in his usual spot; tail flapping lazily on the sand. There were too many humans around during the day to bask in the sun, and the sun dried out his skin really quickly; something he didn't like very much.

Sporting sizable, ornate fins, his tail was useful in water, but too large and cumbersome to carry around on land, which was part of the reason he rarely left the water. Tonight, though, he was relaxed, but he was still on high alert. Sometimes humans liked to take late night swims, and this was a threat to him and any other merfolk who chose to temporarily leave the water to bask on land. He could shoot through water faster than a bullet could fly through air, but on land his movements were severely hindered. He couldn't afford to get caught by humans again, so he made sure to stay within a few feet of the tide at all times.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he thought of the human who'd captivated his heart.

Luffy.

Such a wonderful name...

He could almost hear his voice now...

"Zorooooo!"

Zoro quickly propped himself up on his hands, looking around, trying to locate the source of the voice. Spotting Luffy, a smile lit his face.

"Luffy!" Zoro spoke excitedly, settling down again.

"Hey Zoro! You're on land!" Luffy wondered if Zoro felt vulnerable when he was out of the water. "How does it feel?"

"The air on my skin feels nice tonight. Not too warm, but not too cool either. Where I'm from, the air is mostly still. Very little in the way of a breeze. I like it on land, but it's really hard to move around."

Luffy moved over to Zoro, squatting next to him. "Can I touch your tail?" He'd alway wondered what a mertail felt like.

"Umm... Sure." Zoro watched as Luffy's hand reached for his tail. Like most humans, his hand, as it came into contact with him, was warm, almost hot in temperature. It didn't burn, but the amount of concentrated heat was a little uncomfortable.

Luffy marveled at the slickness of Zoro's abundant tail. It was cool to the touch too. It surprised him that his fins didn't feel like wet human hair, but instead, felt somehow... different. Courser... and stiffer... than they looked in water.

Luffy withdraw his hand, sniffing it. Despite having touched Zoro, his hand didn't smell fishy, it smelled more like the ocean air. "I had a betta once, with fins like yours. Yours are much larger though. Are you a betta merman?"

"Yeah, I am. I've never met another one though, so far." Zoro sat up on his hands again. "I need to get back into the water."

Luffy watched Zoro begin the laborious process of wiggling and dragging his heavy body across the sand, back down to the shoreline. It kind of reminded him of baby sea turtles and their arduous journey to get into the sea before predators snapped them up for a delicious meal. No wonder Zoro rarely liked to leave the water.

"Need some help?" Luffy offered, stepping closer to him.

"Nah, just watch for people." He was nearly captured once, and that was when he'd been in water. How much more vulnerable would he be if spotted on land?

Luffy kept on the watch as Zoro made his way back down the sand, and into the water without incident. Once Zoro was in, Luffy watched as he turned to face him. Gazing at the lazy flow of fins in the water, Luffy breathed, "You're just so beautiful!"

Zoro had heard his mother and sister use that word to describe his features before, but to hear it from Luffy made his heart skip a beat, and his breath quicken. He swallowed hard. "You... You think I'm beautiful?"

Luffy's face lit up as he sat down on the sand next to Zoro, letting the water lap at his feet. "Yeah! You're the most beautiful merman I've ever seen. Betta fish are really pretty, but a betta merman is extraordinarily beautiful. How did you get to be like this?"

"I guess there was a betta merfolk in my ancestry somewhere. I don't know of any currently in my family, nor do I know of any elsewhere. Of course, part of the reason for that could be because merfolk are so highly prized by humans." Zoro surmised, letting the tide of the ocean flow gently over his back.

"Still... I wanna be a merman..." Luffy sighed. "I wanna be able to swim, and have a sea adventure. I don't like being stuck on land all the time."

"I know what you mean." Zoro nodded, agreeing. "I'm basically a creature of the sea, but there are times I want to explore the land. My sister is a fishperson, so she can leave the water whenever she wants. I like the way I am, but sometimes I envy her legs. You, on the other hand, can run and walk. What's so wrong with that?"

Luffy shrugged. "Nothing really, but merfolk can travel much faster in the water than humans can travel by foot on land. And if you go down far enough to pick up speed, you can jump high when you break the surface of the water too. And unlike humans, you can breathe underwater."

"That's true. There are things in the ocean that humans would probably never get to see because of that limitation. But then, there are things on land _I'll_ never get to see either because I don't have legs. I guess, to use a land term my sister uses, it's a two-way street. Am I using that term properly, by the way?"

"I think so," Luffy said, not being used to the term himself.

Zoro let out a wistful sigh. "If I could walk, for just one day... I want to see my sister's dojo. I've mostly only eaten fish, shellfish, crabs, lobsters, sea king meat, stuff like that. What's this "beef" thing, taste like? And pork? And what kind of land animals do they come from?"

"Cows for beef, and pigs for pork. And they're both delicious!" Luffy chuckled.

"From what I've heard, they _sound_ delicious. I want to try them one day."

"I know a good yakiniku place that lets you take out. I can bring you some tomorrow." Luffy paused a moment before speaking again. "I love your hair... It's so pretty! It's not like any other green I've ever seen."

Zoro's face flushed a deep pink. "But it's not black like yours-"

Luffy was confused at Zoro's words. "Why would you want plain, black hair? Lots of people have black hair. I don't know anyone with light green hair... Or any green hair for that matter! People have to dye it to get that color. And even then, it's not as pretty."

"I know there are other people with black hair, but... it's... just... something about yours... I dunno, I just like it. I want black hair too," Zoro admitted.

"No! Green is better! It's unique!" Luffy insisted.

Zoro wasn't so sure about green being better. "Yeah, but..."

"It is! I like it!" Luffy reached over, running his hand through Zoro's damp hair. The softness of it surprised him. "It's soft too. My hair is a bit more stiff."

Zoro ran his hand over Luffy's hair. The webbing between each digit of his hand making it impossible for the hair to run between his fingers. "You're right, but it's so smooth... Also, I've never felt fully _dry_ hair before."

"Never?" Luffy asked, surprised.

Zoro shook his head. "Never. Since I'm underwater most of the time, my hair is usually damp or wet."

There was a comfortable silence, before Zoro spoke again. "By the way... Thanks for giving me a name for the way I feel. Despite what Sanji said, I knew I wasn't weird."

"No problem!" Luffy grinned a large grin. After a bit, the grin faded to a warm smile. "And don't worry about what Sanji says. You're not weird, and he shouldn't be making you feel as if you are."

"But we've been friends since childhood... I-" Zoro began before he was interrupted by Luffy.

Luffy's face grew serious then. "The way you feel sexually is _no_ business of his, even if he is your friend."

"Yeah..." He sighed. "You're right..."

"You don't really sound sure," Luffy lay a hand between Zoro's shoulder blades. "But it's the truth."

Zoro sighed again, nodding solemnly.

* * *

 **If you like the chapter, please read & review**


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